The common boy
by No.1 tigger
Summary: this story takes place at the last years of Johnathan's reign, this is the first story of my series/ an orphan boy gets adopted by the rough, changing his life. the boy strives to change his life for the better, will he succeed or will he end up dead in the gutter. read to find out/ in progress, please read and review/ rated T for safety/ slightly revised.
1. prologue

_**This Is my First story so don't be too harsh but I want all of you to tell me what you think, tell me what I need to add, and tell me if I did a good job. it is slightly revised.**_

**The Common Boy**

_**CH1 Introduction**_

I am an orphan I am told that I am seven years old, but no one really knows. My parents died in a fire that destroyed everything that I would have ever known. I was saved by a strange man, he brought me to the orphanage right after he saved me, I was supposedly 3 months old then. He left a box with my name, David S., I don't know what the _S _means but I have always wanted to know.

My eighth birthday is tomorrow, and every night I dream about a man in gold armor telling me that I would be adopted on my eighth birthday. But that is still a day away and you still need to know some details.

Everyday me and the other orphans have to go out into the city and retrieve money to help keep the orphanage, or as we orphans call it _**'The Big House'**_, alive. Most of us beg or pickpocket around the city, we each get our own area, but me, I work at the court of the rough, I bring in more money than nearly all of them combined. I started working there about 3 year ago:

I was the weak child of the group I brought in maybe two copper nobles in every day, I was told to try a different technique so I tempted my hand at pick pocketing. But unknown to me then I accidently attempted to pickpocket the rough, the leader of the court of the rough. He thought it was funny saying, "If you really want to pickpocket someone never pickpocket a person that is a known thief." I was scared because I got caught; the other boys said that whenever they get caught they get a beating. But to my astonishment he was amused, he asked, "Why would such a smart looking boy like you try to pickpocket the king of thieves." I told him about the orphanage and how we are supposed to make money to keep the orphanage from falling apart. He smiles at my story and tells me I can work as a servant at the court. And so I have worked there every day since.

The men at the court thought that I would crack after a few days of work but I was having fun, I started to ask those who had special skills to teach me, and over the next year I learned to pickpocket without the person feeling the slightest touch, I learned how to through daggers with such accuracy that I can hit a target 100 feet away on the bull's eye, shoot arrows with twice the accuracy of daggers and twice the distance, how to roll, punch ,and jump in extreme combat situations (which really helped when it came to serving with a full house) I learned to test for poison without magic, and everything else that they knew.

When I learned everything he knew in a year he decided that I needed advanced training from what he called 'a master'.

So he brought in a past Rough, his friend, George Cooper, we started training whenever he came over until I learned everything he could teach me, when he could teach me no more he decided that I needed to meet wife , The lioness, she was a living legend, but I have never had enough time for her to teach me, she was at war half the time and with her family the other half, the three times that I have met her, neither of use had enough time for lessons but we have gotten to be friends. I enjoyed learning to battle, but Today is the day before I get adopted, or so that man in wondrous gold armor tells me, so if I get adopted by a family that doesn't want me to fight then I will never learn, or so that's what they will think.

_**That is the end of my intro to my story stay in touch for chapter 2, The last day as an orphan, **_

_**I know long name but big results. Review!**_

_**Ta ta for now**_


	2. chapter 1

_**Well to those who are still reading this story, This is my second chapter, it will be a true start to the story. revised, if anyone who is reading this sees any mention of the character being three years old please tell me and I will fix it. I got a review explaining the problems with this so I am trying to fix it.**_

_**Read and Review.**_

**The Common Boy**

_**Ch2 The last day as an orphan**_

Today I was laying in bed dreaming about the man in golden armor but the dream was different: I was standing in the middle an empty road in a great forest; I started to walk up a hill in the road, when I got to the top and looked into the distance and saw a castle and a city surrounded by the wall. Somehow I knew that this was Corus, The capital city of Tortall. There was an army advancing on the city and there was another army emerging from the gate to clash in battle, they were lead by two men, one in gold armor, and one in silver armor. A voice said, "Both of these men will be in your future, one will be you, the other will teach you to be a knight." The scene disappeared and I was on a great white plain of nothingness. And out of it all a glowing gold figure appeared, he said, "now, you will be adopted the day after you wake, go make this future possible."

A great wave came crashing through my dreams. I flew out of bed (I was used to this brutal awakening, but usually I was fast enough to avoid getting wet) I was soaked from head to toe. The nursemaid who took care of use smirked; it had been nearly a year since she had gotten me.

Then she proceeded with her usual, she through water on the rest of the orphans, saving the new kid for last. Then she yelled, "Alright it is time for you kids to go out there and earn money to keep this place running." Everyone ran off to get money even the new kid, who caught on to the routine like he was born to it.

I immediately headed for the court knowing that I was late. I got to the secret entrance that led straight to the kitchen, when I got there I picked up the order pad and headed out to take the orders of the few men who were there early in the day.

Each of the men knew me and asked for their usual, I looked up to see if the rough was there but for some reason he was gone. When I brought back their orders I asked some of them where he was, most of them didn't know, or didn't care. But one of them told me that he and his wife were talking about adopting a kid from the local orphanage.

None of the men at court knew that I was an orphan. I nodded like I didn't care, but thoughts were shooting around in my head. I proceeded to take the orders of those who entered, refilling people's cups and food, as the flow increased until most of the court's chairs were taken I was too busy to notice that the Rough, Gary, had entered and was sitting at his throne talking to George.

I noticed them as I was bringing the tray full of drinks out to the people, when I had finished distributing the drinks I headed toward the throne. As I approached I heard George talking about his daughter in the copper isles, and her crow children. But when I got closer they stopped talking and looked at me, George whispered something to Gary and Gary whispered back, but both of them had made it so that I couldn't read their lips.

George got up and walked up to me, got down on his knee to get on eye level me. Then he asked, "Would you like me to adopt you after I get back in two days?" he looked deep into my eyes and saw something with his gift; He saw the eyes of a war hardened warrior of age and skill, he shifted his gaze a little and saw a knight standing in front of him, not a boy.

He blinked and the vision vanished, I was back to being a boy, he shook his head placing the vision in the back of his mind. I responded to his question by saying, "If I am still there in two days than I would be delighted if you wanted to adopted me." But I knew that I would be adopted before then. I worked for three hours longer until the first large group left; I had gotten 38 Gold nobles worth in copper and silver nobles today, about 5 times more than on a usual day.

I went back out the secret entrance in the kitchen, and headed toward The Big House, I was running because I was late for returning to the orphanage with the money. I knew that I would be scolded until The Nursemaid counted the money I brought for her.

I stumbled into the front of the orphanage, all the other children were staring at me upset that they had to wait for me, the nursemaid walked over to me, surprisingly she wasn't to angry she knew that I had a good reason for wasting their time. I started to place coin purse after coin purse on the counter until there were 16 coin purses on the counter, everyone was staring at the pile. I poured out all of the coins and sorted them all until there were 37 piles, 1 for every gold piece.

The awe of the amount of money I place on the counter was obvious. The Nursemaid, Fran, asked, "were did you get all this money?" I responded, "I get them from the court of the rough, it was packed today. There were over 1000 people in there today, and the reason I'm late is because I only leave when the largest group leaves. And that was about 20 minutes ago." This explanation explained a lot, she smiled at the money and gave me ten percent of the money. I took the money, walked over to my bed, pulled out my box of possessions, and carried them out the door. No one protested because I do every week, to get the largest amount of money out of the others reach.

I walked as fast as I could the bank, because it was getting late. When I turned a corner I saw out of the corner of my eye that Myles was following me. One of the guards that Gary set to keep me saw asked If he should get rid of him, I shook my head then continued an like we hadn't spoke.

I got to the bank and walked over to the teller that I usually use, Rebecca, and placed my money and my box on the counter. She deposited my money and walked back with the receipt, she gave it to me, then I asked if she could hold onto the box for a few days. She asked, "why do you need me to hold onto it,"

I responded, "I don't feel safe right now; I just don't trust the new kid, he's always snooping around and, he followed me here today." To this she nodded and told me that she would take it home, where it would be safe. I thanked her and started to walk away, then she said, " I have finally convinced my husband to adopt you, we will come by tomorrow around lunch to get you." I turned around to face her again, happiness on my face.

A voice in the back of my head said, 'this women and her husband are the ones meant to adopt you they will lead you to the future of the knight.'

I told her, "It would be an honor to be adopted by you." I said thank you at least four times as I walked out the door. When I was outside the door I turned around and saw that I was surrounded by a group of people. A big man walked through the wall of men and picked me up, I tried to fight but wasn't able to move. They pulled me into an alley way.

The guards saw me get kidnapped; one followed the group of men the rest went to the Gary for reinforcements.

Gary was in the court sitting on his throne when two of the men that he had assigned to watch David stumbled through the main entrance; they ran through the crowd of people and fell to their knees in front of him, gasping for air. When they caught their breath they told Gary, "David was kidnapped (Gasp, wheeze) A large group of men (large Breath) they carried him off, we told James to tail them, there were at least 20 of them.

Immediately after they finished explaining their presents The rough and about 100 people (Both men and women that know David) were rushing out of the court, when the rough got out of the court he saw James running towards him, James yelled, "They stopped at the old abandoned storage rooms.

Back to David/ I was pulled through three different buildings and then thrown into a chair in a large storeroom. I looked around to see if there was any possibility of escape, but I saw none. Myles was standing in front of the big man that had carried me here, he just watched as I was tied to the chair. When I was secured Myles approached and asked, "were do you get all that money? And, why do you just put it into the bank and not use any of it?"

I just stared at him, I refused to speak to such a vile creature, I spat in his face. The big man slapped me so hard I almost got knocked out. When my head stopped spinning I stared at this man with all the hatred a child's heart could hold and thinking of every curse that I knew, or ever heard, then I imagined him catching on fire. Out of nowhere a ball of black fire formed in his hair, and it quickly turned to the usual red and yellow color of fire. He put out the fire before anything else caught but he had lost all his hair.

With this distraction no one but me noticed that people were slowly flowing into the storage room, when Gary saw me sitting in the middle of the room with no one near me he yelled, "NOW!," all of the kidnappers were down on their knees with a knife to their throat. Gary ran to me and cut the ropes that bound me to the chair, when I was free from the ropes I wrapped my arms around Gary and started crying into his shoulder.

He sent his men back to the court with their captives telling them that they could choose the fate of these 'criminals'. He walked out of the storage room carrying me; he carried me all the way back to 'The Big House'. I had fallen asleep in his arms, when he got to the orphanage and opened the front door the nursemaid was so distressed that I hadn't returned that she almost attacked him, until she noticed that he was carrying me, she let him in.

Gary set me in my bed and turned to the nursemaid and said, "Me and my wife will be coming here tomorrow to adopt David, don't let anyone else adopt him, there are some who want to do him harm. Good day." He turned and left, the nursemaid was so happy that I was safe, but she was distressed that I was leaving, but she couldn't stop that. She headed to her bed and went to sleep.

_**Well everybody how did you like this chapter, I know that it is probably boring but it's the beginning and it needed to be written. Hope you enjoyed, next chapter 'past revealed'**_

_**Ta Ta for now.**_


	3. Filler chapter

_**This is my third chapter, hope you like.**_

_**Read and review.**_

_**The Common Boy**_

'_**Beka and Gary's discussion'**_

As Gary walked home he was going over how he would tell Beka, Gary's wife, about what had happened to the boy David. When he got to his house he approached the door and finally decided exactly what he was going to say. He opened the door; Beka was sitting on a couch staring at him. She had been waiting for him to come home.

Both Beka and Gary started talking at the same time, and then they stopped, Beka said, "I'll go first," she took a deep breath and said, "Are you completely sure that we are ready to have a child?" she didn't wait for him to respond before she said, " I know that you don't want to wait but I don't think that we are ready."

Gary listened to her politely and when she was finished he said in a slightly tired tone, "David was kidnapped by a group of thugs today, we found them and saved David but I don't think that it is safe for him at the orphanage anymore," he sighed and said, "I don't think that it matters if we are ready for a child yet, but this boy is ready for use now," he took a deep breath and continued, "even if we aren't ready for children this boy will be easier to take care of then most kids, he's a fast learner and he is very smart."

Beka nodded her head in an understanding way. Then she said, "Then if we are to adopt him tomorrow, then we need to get his room ready." Gary nodded and they both headed to the room that would later belong to David. They spent about an hour taking things out of the room and putting them in places around the house.

Then they brought a bed into the room, Gary set up a desk that would be David's. he put paper in a drawer, then placed an assortment of different colored inks, (will get to later) then he carried in a chest that David could put his stuff in, it has a magic lock that will open only for David, after he sets it. Beka started to bring in clothes and set them in the dresser, knowing that I probably wouldn't have any.

When they were finished they headed to bed, tired from a day of hard work. They got to their room; Beka laid down on Gary's shoulder and snuggled up close to him.

Gary closed his eyes happy as can be, until he started to dream,

'he was standing in an open white field, a single tall tree standing high in the distance was all that broke this white glistening field. He started to wonder why he was there when he heard a voice say, "turn around." He obeyed, turning around; there was a man in gold armor that looked a lot like the chief god, Mithros, and asked, "what am I doing here?" the man smiled and said, "you are here because you are about to adopt a boy by the name of David, there is nothing wrong with that I just need to tell you that he is distend for more than just being your predecessor, he is going to be the first commoner to become a knight,"

Gary woke remembering everything that was in his dream; it was morning, about 7 o'clock, and Beka was still sleeping on his shoulder. He kissed her forehead, she opened her eyes slowly and kissed him back. They got up and got dressed for their day. Beka said," we should head to the orphanage before we have breakfast." Gary nodded.

Gary grabbed his and Beka's coat, handing Beka's to her and putting on his own. They headed out the door on their way to the orphanage. As they walked Gary told Beka about his dream.

_**How did you like the story so far? This isn't the chapter that I promised but this was a filler chapter that leads to the chapter, 'past revealed', I will post that chapter next, hope you enjoyed this chapter. Review.**_

_**Ta Ta for now.**_

_**Still have free brownie points… if someone can guess where the phrase , 'Ta Ta for now', comes from I will post the next chapter in less than 24 hours.**_


	4. Chapter 2, Past revealed

_**Hello again to all my readers, which isn't that many yet, but no worries, I will keep updating whenever I can, But no one has guessed my phase yet**_

_**:(**_

_**Well here is my next chapter hope you like :)**_

_**The Common Boy**_

"_**Past Revealed"**_

The next Morning…

I woke up around four in the morning; I usually wake up at seven. I didn't have any dreams today, which is wonderful, because the usual dream I've been having is starting to get on my nerves.

I sat up and looked around; I saw that all the other kids were sleeping, except for Myles who was missing. The nursemaid was working on some documents on the counter, she saw that I was awake and said, "Good morning, you were out really late last night, is that man that carried you back here your friend?"

At first I didn't understand what she was talking about, then I remembered the day before, and falling asleep in Gary's arms. I looked at her and said, "I've worked for Gary a little over a year now, I guess we could be called friends but he acts like more of a father figure than a friend." I looked down and said, "he saved me yesterday, I was walking back here from the bank when a large group of men, led by Myles, dragged me off the streets, the people that Gary set to watch me went straight to him and told him what happened, he then brought half of the court of the rough to track me down, and rescue me."

She was astonished; I could see the shock as it set on her face. She was about to say, 'That man said that he would adopt you today,' then thought better of it, and instead said, "do you want to help me fill out me bills and pay my taxes, I know that you like math and I could use the help." I thought about it then nodded and said, "I will help you with your taxes, and your bills."

I walked over to the counter and sat on the stool next to her; I grabbed a pile of bills and started working. It was mostly basic math and simple algebra, I work at a moderate rate of speed finishing one page every ten minutes or so, but it still too me until 8:30 in the morning to finish working. The nurse maid went to take a break a few hours earlier and was just waking up again. When I put the last paper down in the pile that I had made, the door opened and in walked Gary and Beka walked in, at first I didn't think anything about it other than, 'I don't know they were married', I realized that they were going to adopt a child and said, "if you are here to adopted one of use orphans than you need to fill out this paper and choose the child that you want to adopt.

I watched Beka work on the paper, Beka told Gary, in a hushed voice, "you should look around and act like you're looking for a child to adopt and come back when I finish the documents and tell him that we chose him," Gary nodded and headed into the other room, he started looking at the kids. When Beka finished the paper work she walked up to me and said, "Here are the papers that you wanted us to fill out." I looked at her and said, "Have you chosen the child that you wanted to adopt?"

Beka said, "yes I have chosen the young man named David, he is about 4 feet tall, 3 years old, and works hard at what he does." I turned the papers to face me as she explained who she wanted to adopt, I wrote down the name David, at that moment I know that she meant me, as I figured out that she meant me I started to get filled with a great joyful feeling. I tried to hide my joy, knowing I was failing, I got up and said, "One moment, I need to get these papers signed." I walked over to the nursemaid and slightly shook her to wake her up. I placed the papers in front of her and said, "I need you to sign these."

At first she just stared at the paper not understanding, and then she saw my name on the paper and picked up the pen. She hesitated to sign the paper at first because she didn't want to lose me, and then decided that my happiness was worth more than money, she signed the paper. She said, "Fare well little one, I'll see you again one day."

I ran back over to the desk, pulled open a file and place the final paper work inside, and gave a copy to Beka for proof of the adoption. When this was done I jumped into a strong embrace with my new parents. My parents each grabbed one of my hands, my dad on my right, and my mom on my left. I will call them Beka and Gary until we are all used to the change that has just occurred.

As we walked away I looked back at 'The Big house' with the nursemaid standing in the doorway, I said mentally, 'goodbye, this won't be my last fare well, you were my old home and the home of my friends, I couldn't just leave it behind never to return, Could I?'

_**("But unaware to him, he would never see 'the big house' ever again")**_

We headed straight to their (I mean 'OUR') house and headed into the front door. This house was fairly large and clean, there was a fire place in the center of the wall opposite to the front door. There were two doors one on the right and on the left that were bed rooms, there was two fancy chairs set in front of the fire place, when I looked at the fire place a chill went up my spine, Gary saw and said, "is there something wrong, are you cold," I looked away from the fire and said, "maybe I'll tell you about it later."

I looked at Beka and asked, "Are there any rules that I have to follow?" she looked at me and smiled and said, "I'll give you the list of rules at dinner, how about we show you your room." We headed toward the room that led to the right, Beka said, "This is your room we put some furniture in, if there is anything that you need just tell use."

I walked into my room; my parents leaned against the door frame watching. The room was small about 5 ft by 6 ft; there was a bed in the far left corner, with a small chest that fit perfectly in place at the end of the bed. There was a small desk to the left of the door and a dresser to the right; in the far right corner I saw a glimmer of light, that wasn't normal. I walked over to it and saw that it was an escape door; the light I saw was magic to conceal it from sight. But somehow I could see it; Gary walked over and asked, "How can you see it?" I looked at him and said, "It's glowing,"

He smiled and said, "the only reason that it would glow is that you have the gift, or magic." I looked at him and said, "I know that I have magic, but I know how to heal burns and put out fires, I didn't care about any other magic." This shocked Gary, he stared at me and asked why would you focus on just fire prevention magic?" he looked deep into my eyes and tried to force the answer out of me, I said, "I'll tell/show you at dinner." He nodded and walked back to the door. I walked over to the chest and placed my thumb on the front of the lock, there was no key hole and something told me that this would open the lock. I heard the pop that confirmed that the lock had opened; I looked into the chest and saw my box sitting at the bottom.

I looked at Beka and smiled, saying, "Thanks," beaming at her, Gary said, "now that lock won't open for anyone but you." I nodded, and then I headed to the desk. On the desk were a variation of different inks, there were at least 11 different colors, but there was something different about the last one, I opened it and wet a pen in the ink. I picked up the other ink bottles and wrote what each of them was colored. I picked up the last one and tried to figure out what to name it, to me it shimmered, but it might be a different color to someone else.

Out of nowhere I heard a voice say, "That is invisible ink, it is made for encoded messages, and there is a spell that makes it visible." I wrote Invisible on the vial and placed it back into place. As I did I said, "It shimmers like the trap door does, does that mean that I don't need the spell to read it?" my dad smiled and said, "I guess that's true, but if it's alright with you I still want you to memorize the spell, just in case it doesn't always glow to your eyes." I nodded and took a step back looking at the room in its full picture again.

My mother asked, "So, how do you like your room?" I look a breath and said, "It's wonderful, but I need to do one more thing before I will sleep in this room." Beka was about to ask what when I inhaled deeply and place my hand on the wall. She saw energy flow through my and arm and into the wall, as the energy flowed over the wall my parents could feel the power that it took to make this spell. When it was finished the walls glowed a bright red then the light faded and disappeared.

Gary said, "I will be back by dinner, there is someone I need to speak with," he sounded like he was disturbed but at the same time he sounded excided, Beka nodded with a sigh, he ran off, obviously in a hurry. Beka said, "come on, I'll show you around the rest of the house, then I will get started on dinner."

We headed on a tour of the house, which took longer than you would think; it was 7:30 in the afternoon when we finally finished the tour. Beka started making dinner; I stared at the flame that was sitting on the candle in the middle of the dining table. The flame started to float in the air until it was a foot above the wick of the candle, It was at this moment that Gary came home saying to someone outside, "he is in here is there anything that you need to check for hi…" he stopped talking when he saw the flame floating in front of me, a voice from outside said, "are you going to let me see your new son or no…" he pushed himself passed Gary and saw me at the table.

He noticed the flame in front of me but he didn't give it a second look he looked directly at me, but he didn't see a boy of three years old, he saw a glowing man in armor that looked exactly like the god of the sun, Mithros' armor, except that it was silver not gold. He had prepared himself to test for even the most minute amounts of energy, but instead he saw my purest energy, my spirit, every last drop of my energy that helped create me.

He knelt to the floor knowing that I had to be a great mage, or be the son/grandson of Mithros. I walked over to him and touched him, removing the energy over his eyes, he looked up again and saw a boy, he whispered, "great one…" I shook my head and said, "I am not great one, I'm just a boy." He didn't respond instead he stood and said, "I need to speak with the king, I'll see you in a few days." He stepped out the door, got on his horse and rode it away.

I sat back in the chair that I had sat in before and looked back at the flame. Gary sat across from me and looked at the flame, Beka watched from over his shoulder. I looked deep into the flame, so deep that a memory appeared in my head, my father saw the flame turn into a cylinder and images started to form in it.

'_**I was a baby again laying in my old crib, smoke**__**was rising out from under the door, I started crying, fire creped through the crack under the door and flowed across the room. I heard a banging on the door, someone trying to get in, an explosion made the door fly off its hinges. A man came in; he ran to me and picked me up out of the crib. He ran out of the room carrying me. He ran down a set of stairs and into a large room, he started to run to the door that led outside, when the floor in front of him imploded and he was forced to stop. The moment that he stopped he caught on fire, he yelled to the heavens, "Great Mithros my father please save my son take him from this place to a far away land, place him in a family that will help give him the power to defeat my evil family. Please!" as he yelled with the last of his breath his son glowed and vanished, he said, "thank you" and was gone,**_

_**We were standing outside the burning house and a voice said, "This memory will haunt you for the rest of your life, but I will prevent it from invading your dreams."**_

_**The scene went white.**_

_**The next moment we were standing outside the orphanage and we entered.**_

The image faded from the fire and Gary said, "So, that's why you have worked all your magic on fire prevention." I looked down and said, "Ya." The food finish soon after, we ate and talked about my parents, and my work, about anything but fire. When we were done eating we headed to our beds and went to sleep.

_**So how's my story, this is my fourth chapter and there are many more left in this story, all are written in my journal, but I need to type them. I need help naming a character in my next story, she is the same age as the main character and a princess, and I can't give specifics yet, unless I'm asked nicely.**_

_**Hope you keep reading, review, I don't care if they are good or bad reviews I just want reviews.**_

_**Ta Ta for now**_

_**:)**_

_**Still have free points :)**_


	5. Chapter 3

_**So no reviews, NONE! At least no new reviews, PLEASE people review, I don't care if you yell at me, or if you just say something random, just PLEASE, review**_

_**The Common Boy**_

"_**The court, the vision, and the smith"**_

**Part one: the court**

Tuesday, July 29th

That night as I slept I dreamt about the fire, and the burning house, the fear that I felt then resurfaced and I woke, sitting up strait, in a cold sweet, covering my mouth to smother a scream. When I calmed down a little I looked around. Gary was sitting in the chair of my desk, he had been watching me sleep, and at the moment it looked like he was thinking.

When he looked directly at me and saw the fear in my eyes that I had removed from my face he asked, "Did you dream about the fire? I did, I don't know why but I did." I sighed and said, "Ya, I dreamt about the fire, but and I think that you dreamt about it because no matter who this happened to it is a bad memory to have." Gary nodded and said, "Well to change the subject, Beka left a little while ago, so I want to show you the secret entrances and exits before we head to the court." I got dressed and followed my dad around the house. The window in his room led to the roof, so if you had to escape you could run along the roof tops. There was a trap door in the cellar that led to a walkway that connected directly to the court. And there was an exit under my bed, which was a tunnel that led outside the city walls.

We left the house and headed for the court, The Dancing Dove. When we got there Gary went through the front, and to Gary's discomfort, I went through the side entrance that I usually use. I got to his throne and placed his usual drink on the stand that was next to his throne. He walked over to me and said, "I don't think you should serve anymore, here" he pulls a chair up beside his throne and said "sit down and relax, I want to show you how I govern my people, and maybe I'll let you chose some of their fates, and tomorrow you can do whatever you like. O.K?"

"Alright," I said, I sat down and smiled. I looked around watching people come in and sit at tables. One after another the other members of the court came and sat down, none of them asked or protested about me sitting next to the throne, they all knew why I was there. People in the crowd saw me and started to whisper. When all the members of the court were assembled people started to approach to ask for aid.

My dad whispered into my ear and said, "If we have to vote for a punishment and the votes are equal on all sides you will get the deciding vote. If the punishment is small or extremely high you will choose the punishment, so I can see how you judge a situation. Don't interrupt one of the people who is asking for help, and don't interrupt a member of the court when they speak, is that understood?" I whispered back just as quietly, "yes." Then proceeded what I expected to be a very boring day.

To my surprise I had fun, everyone who came before the council, for help, or for crime, were heard, and then after they spoke the council discussed either the punishment, or the way that they could help the person. At the end of each discussion I gave my opinion, which was always heard and encouraged more so then not they would go with my opinion, which was often a more merciful, or helpful, for those who came before us. I gave them a way to give more food rations to those who needed them, without using up our stores of food. I chose the fate of many men, if they were to be executed or not, and if not what would be their punishment. I gave the order to kill 5 times, the first two were murderers, and the other three were kidnappers, which to all honesty I was less merciful to them. I let ten men live, 4 were colemongers, makers of illegal coins. They had their right hands removed and a glowing silver coin tattoo on their left hand, to forever name them as colemongers. The other six stole from our stores, the punishment I gave them was, they had to pay back everything that they stole along with an extra 5 gold nobles to discourage them, and anyone else from stealing from us.

For every decision that I made Gary made me give a reason for why I gave that punishment, except for the kidnappers, which he fully understood.

That night as we were leaving the court a man walked up to us, he was very angry, he yelled at Gary, "why are you letting a 'CHILD' govern us, and choose what the court does!?" Gary looked squarely at this man, and said in a threatening tone, that could make the most courageous man run, "This boy is my son, If you don't think that he is worthy of choosing the punishment of a low life criminal than I want you out of the court, actually I want you out of the city, tonight!"

This only made the man angrier, and before Gary could do anything the man charged at me with a knife in his hand. When he got within my reach I grabbed his wrist and twisted, making him drop the knife. He pulled his hand out of my hold and grabbed for me, I noticed he balanced mainly on his right leg, which told me that his left leg was in pain. I ducked in-between his legs and smashed my fist into his left knee, I felt the crack of broken bone. I stood up as he fell to his knees, I was behind him now, and I picked up his dropped knife and placed it on his neck, just below his chin and added pressure. Many people had watched this fight, no one tried to help the fool who attacked the boy who they had all seen train with the rough. Gary said, "If you want to you can kill him, and no one here would hold it against you," I shook my head and said, "this man still has the choice to leave the city, and if he doesn't then he should be put before the courts judgment not that of me."

The pride that was visible on my father's face, made him glow with happiness. I stood, releasing the man, and my father walked over to me, picked me up, then kicked the man into a pile of manure, and then brought me home. People were cheering us all the way home. We walked into the door of our house, my mom was just finishing making dinner and placing the food on the table.

As we were eating and talking about the wondrous day, a thought grew in my head, and I blurted out, "I want to be a knight when I grow up." I had spoken before I realized that my father might be unhappy with what I said, but to my surprise he smiled and said, "we can work on that, it will take some time, but I think it is possible that we can make you a knight."

**Part two: the vision**

That night as I slept, I dreamt, I was standing on a cliff over Corus, the sun was setting over mountains glowing pink over a shredded cloud covered sky. I looked at the ground and about 20 miles off in the distance, an army was approaching, the flag that was flying above them was one that I have never seen before. It was a sun design in the background with a dragon at war with a boat. I looked back at Corus and saw that an army was exiting the gates heading out to fight the approaching warriors. In the front were two men, one was wearing the gold armor of the king, and the other was wearing silver armor in the same style as Mithros' armor except silver not gold.

I heard a voice say, "One of these men is you, this is the path that you have chosen, it is grave with many hardships, but you will find your love, and many friendships." The voice faded but the dream continued, the two armies collided and battled for hours, neither having the upper hand, then in the middle of the enemies army the man in silver armor started to glow, power erupted from him swarming the enemy and they all dropped their weapons and collapsed to their knees, none of them dead, they just gave up.

I woke with a start, my eyes flashed open I realized that it was probably just a dream but it was terrifying none the less, I could smell food cooking and I could hear Beka humming a tune.

**Part three: the smith**

Wednesday, July 30th

I sat up in my bed and felt sunlight on my face, I got out of bed and changed onto my day clothes and headed toward the kitchen, were I heard Beka humming. Beka heard me enter the kitchen, and without turning around she said, "Gary went to Port Caine to have a talk about why he sent colemongers into our city, the ones that you so kindly showed mercy to told Gary who they worked for."

I nodded looking at my feet, and then I looked into her face and saw sadness in her eyes, my guess of why is because she know that I ordered some peoples deaths yesterday. But, I also saw pride, she was proud of me for making merciful, and adult choices and she was also proud that I didn't want to just live as a thief. I wanted to move forward in life, I wanted to become a knight. And, she knows that if I had to, I would pay for it all by myself, and she knew I could.

I smiled and thinking about my future and said, "I want to learn how to make armor fit for nobles, so that when I become a knight I'll be able to make my own armor and weapons. So, today I will be heading to the blacksmiths and seeing what I will be allowed to learn from him." Beka smiled and said, "Try your best, and be home by ten o'clock, no later, okay?" I said, "Okay, I'll be home by ten."

About to run out of the house Beka said, "Before you leave you need to eat some breakfast, here." She placed a plate with eggs, pancakes, and bacon in front of a chair and said "eat." I sat down and started eating; it was delicious, like everything else that Beka had ever made for me. I ate with happiness, and when I was finished I said, "thank you," and went out the door.

I headed straight to the closest blacksmiths, which was a 10 minute walk from my house. I saw the blacksmith leaning against the side of his forge, on break, or so it seemed. I approached him, he looked at me and said, "Hello, I can't help you at the moment, my last apprentice learned all that he could from me and now I'm waiting for my new apprentice, his brother to arrive." I looked down and said, "I was wondering if you can teach me to make armor and weapons that are fit for knights? I'm not the apprentice that you were expecting but I am willing to learn and I will pay for the lessons."

He laughed, with a deep roar within his stomach, and said, "Well seeing as you are early, and the apprentice I am waiting for is late, I will teach you. I don't need payment; you just won't get paid for items until you can make something worth the price, understood?" I nodded and asked, "What do I need to do first?" he smiled and said, "first I will teach you how to keep the forge at a perfect heat for hours at a time." I nodded and walked into the forge, with him right behind me.

For the rest of the day I worked on keeping the fire at a constant heat, it took an hour to master, but I had to keep pumping the bellows every 30 minutes about thirteen pumps. When I got the heat perfect he started to teach me the difference between each metal, where they were made, what heat they needed to melt, how long in the heat to make it perfect. That is all I did the first day. Just pump the bellows and memorize information. But, I don't know why, I had fun.

I headed home at about 9:30, when he closed the forge; the apprentice that he had waited for came about 3 hours after I got there. When he got there the blacksmith, Fredrick, had him make nails for the entire time he was there, for being so late. The kid made 400 nails in 2 hours then got mad and left, I took the two buckets of nails and placed them next to the others, which were given to carpenters at the end of the day.

When I got home Beka wasn't home yet and Gary was still in Port Caine. I went to the living space, and took a book of maps from the book shelf and started to memorize the maps of our allies, just to have them in my mind. I was putting the book away and hour later when Beka came home. She closed the door and said, "How was your day?" I put the book on the shelf and started telling her about my day. She made dinner and when we finished eating we went to sleep.

The rest of the week I spent working the bellows and memorizing, then on Friday I started making nails, I did this through Friday, and Saturday, I used every kind of ore, because Fred told me to. He let me keep the gold and silver nails as medals of my mastery of nails. I placed them in slots that were in the side of my black box. Gary came home on Sunday, the rest day; we all went for a walk around town, we went to the market and a show, we had fun and everything was perfect. When we got home we were all tired and went straight for bed.

Monday, 4th august

Monday morning, I woke up and had breakfast with my parents. After the meal I headed to the smiths, on the way I saw Myles in an alley way, he was standing with the same group. They looked like they were getting ready to do something, but I couldn't tell what. I put the thought of them in the back of my head and continued to the smiths.

I got to the smiths and got to work cleaning and starting the fire. Fred came as I was getting the fire to the perfect heat, which is what we planned a while ago. I stood and asked, "So, what do I learn today?" Fred walks over to the pile of ores then he says, "You will learn to make knives." He tossed me some Iron and I put it in the forge, to melt it down for the knives, Fred set up the molds.

For the next three weeks I worked on making knives each one sharper, or stronger, sometimes they would be to weak, or to thin and they would break. But I succeeded in making the perfect belt knives, daggers, and a well made sword, which was just a trial, but it was my first sword.

I took them home and when I got to my house I showed them to my parents. Gary tested each one and when he was finished he said, "These are the sharpest blades that I've seen in a very long time. And you made them?" I nodded and said, "I've been perfecting my abilities on how to make these knives for about a month now, I think that I know how to make a sharp knife." Gary smirked and said, "Alright," then progressed to tell us about his day and the daily beggars, and bribes of his business. After dinner we headed to bed like always and went to sleep.

Tuesday 26th august

When I woke I smelled smoke, like someone was on fire, I ran to the front door and through it open, what I saw outside at that moment brought back the horrible memory of my first house burning, a great fury built up inside me and I ran toward the man burning at the stake, not knowing that my body was glowing.

_**so hows he story so far, this one is almost over and the next is soon to come, hope you enjoy. please review, I feel as if no one is really reading these stories.**_

_**I will add the last chapter when it is finished, but I won't add my next story/ or the sequel of this story unless someone posts. but I will start writing my next story soon- completely different story.**_

_**Ta Ta for now.**_


	6. Chapter 6, the burning man

_**Hey everybody, so how do you like my story, my next story will be up as soon as I can finish the first chapter, if you liked this story than you will like the sequel.**_

'_**The Common Boy'**_

_**The burning man**_

I walked out of my bed room following the smell of fire, and burning flesh. I followed it to the door, just before I opened the door Beka walked out and said, "hey sweaty," then she saw that I didn't turn and asked, "what's wrong," I whispered, "that smell, it smells like burning flesh." Beka gasped and ran to the window. I didn't look at her; I just stared at the door lost in the memory of my past. I heard Beka scream, and that broke me from my trance, I opened the door and saw a horror that I will never forget.

In the middle of the street was a man tide to a stake in the ground that was surrounded by flaming dry grass, I heard him scream and knew immediately who he was. A sign was in the ground before him that said, this is what happens to those that oppose the broke band gang. I bolted toward the fire, not screaming, just focusing my power of the flames. As I ran I inhaled deeply using my power to take the oxygen from the flames, making them shrink and smolder. I felt the burning of smoke in my lungs and exhaled, pushing all the air back onto the flames completely smothering them.

I was too late the man had already been burned beyond recognition, I took out my belt knife and sliced the rope with one slash, I pulled the man toward my house, but there wasn't enough time, I felt him dying. I slowly set him on the ground and placed my hands on his chest, I forced all my remaining energy into him, healing him; I focused so much power and felt myself draining.

The man had been falling down a deep well toward an empty blackness, but just before he got there a great glowing white knight dropped below him then he felt great energy dragging him back to reality. He opened his eyes and saw me, and the knight as one sitting before him pushing power that not even I know I had into him, he felt the burns shrink and diminish, fading into a slight throbbing headache, which also disappeared, cuts and old aches shrank and vanished as well. He felt no pain, not the slightest itch, but he was hungry and tired.

I felt an explosion of energy and heard a voice say, "You are my grandchild, and you have exceeded the energy that your body can handle, whenever you truly need, and the need must be dire, like now. You may tap into this power, but beware, if used to often it will kill you." I nodded and put all my focus back on healing this man. I forced the new energy deep inside him bringing him back from near death. I felt my power healing him, I felt at a point that he would survive if I stopped now but felt that I couldn't leave him in pain.

When I felt that he was healed completely and no longer felt pain I stood, or tried to, but when I got to my feet I stumbled and fell. The man that had been burned sat up and said, "You and I are both tired, we need to get to your house, which I believe is closer." I nodded, he stood and picked me up and carried me to my house, Gary and Beka were standing in the doorway, just staring. The man holding me was the smith, he said, "we need to rest, may we sleep here until we may wake again?" Gary nodded lead him inside, took me and placed me in my bed while Beka put Fred to sleep on the couch. When I was asleep Gary ran out the door headed to Numair's house.

I woke 12 hours later and heard Gary talking to someone, I came into the kitchen and saw Fred Numair and Gary talking about what happened, as I approached I heard Numair say, "I will take him as my apprentice at the castle, you may live there with him as his guardians, as of you Fredrick," Fred interrupted him by saying, "I will teach him all that I know about smithing like he asked of me, I have already been excepted as the kings personal blacksmith, Numair nodded and said, very well than tomorrow he starts his apprenticeship."

_**So how did you like my first story? I have started the sequel. This was made in heist so don't be to upset.**_

_**Ta Ta for now!**_


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